


But yet unbroken

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Angst, Gen, Jae-ha's all-night introspection marathon ft. sleepy Kija, M/M, Shippy Gen, chapter 134 feels, cuddlesleeping while locked up in a cell, someone please save my poor dragon children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9224153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Locked up in a cell in Kouren's palace, Jae-ha finds it hard to sleep.     (Prompt: Jae-ha/Kija, Break me)





	

Jae-ha winced involuntarily, a hiss of pain escaping through his teeth as Kija shifted in his sleep, his head slipping a little further down Jae-ha’s shoulder and jarring his likely-broken ribs and bruised side.

Immediately Jae-ha bit down hard on his lip to stifle the sound, lest he wake the others; they didn’t deserve that, not after what they had had to endure that day. What would come again when day returned, he knew, his eyes flickering once more to Zeno’s sleeping form, so closely cradled between Shin-ah and Yoon in the other corner of the cell that Jae-ha could see nothing but a shock of blood-stained golden hair where the slices of pale golden moonlight came through the high, barred window to illuminate it.

He must not wake them, he thought. _Let them sleep now, because when the sun rose and Mizari woke, then it would start all over again…_

Jae-ha’s shook his head in a vain attempt to rid it of that thought, even as a new one took hold of him, like a cold shock to his heart.

The thing was that he himself - even wounded and weak as he was - could probably get out of this place with relative ease. He wasn’t even chained, and after all now he had the full strength of the dragon’s leg; he had never had that, before. It might potentially have killed him with the state he was in, but once, he knew he would have been fully prepared to take that risk. 

He pictured himself as a child, shaking his head in pity and disgust at a man who could break free of his bonds any time he wanted but chose to remain within them anyway.

But, he realised all at once, not once since being captured had it even crossed his mind to kick down the door and break out, even to go off after Yona himself. It simply hadn’t occurred to him as a possibility.

Of that, at least, he was sure, even if he was sure of nothing else.

He ran his fingers idly over the roughened, scarred skin that banded his wrists as he stared out of the window at the moon, feeling the gentle rhythm of Kija’s breathing against his side. It was surprisingly cold in Xing at night, though the days were warm and humid. Now though, two of them were sharing Jae-ha’s cloak as a blanket against the stoney damp chill of the cell, Kija’s cloak having been swiftly torn into strips for rudimentary bandages by Yoon.

Still, even though the sleepy weight of Kija propped up against his wounded side caused him pain, and even though Kija had most of the blanket - he had even made several large holes in it, pearlescent dragon’s claws clenched into a fist in the cloth in the course of some dream, Jae-ha realised - even though there was blood on the floor,  _and tomorrow there would probably be a knife to Zeno’s throat again, and perhaps even knives to all their throats, if Yona should fail_ … even then, he thought, he would never leave any of them behind.

Well, he supposed he had known that for some time now, anyway.

A slight fluttering of eyelids against his throat, where Kija had slumped down in his sleep so his face was pressed to Jae-ha’s skin. There was blood in Kija’s hair still; the fine silver strands were stiff and dark with it, but then Jae-ha knew his own was much the same.

He felt Kija tremble, and wondered for a moment what was he dreaming about.

“Ah… Jae-ha?”

The sound of Kija’s voice - hushed, roughened by both sleep and pain - buzzed against the hollow of his throat; he felt the whisper of his name in his chest, more than he heard it. But it still made him flinch slightly, as Kija shifted again, raising himself up with obvious pain and effort.

Jae-ha helped him to sit up against his side, gesturing to the others and motioning for him to be as quiet as possible.

Kija looked, winced, and nodded quickly. Then he looked back up at Jae-ha, seeming to see him for the first time, pain-clouded eyes sliding over his face in the dim light. “I’m sorry” said Kija, his face aggrieved. “That’s your wounded side, isn’t it? Did I hurt you?”

“Ah, no Kija, I…” he began. Then be sighed.“….Well, if it’s all the same to you, I would rather you slept on the other side of me. If you’re going to use me as your personal pillow, that is.”

Jae-ha had thought that might bring at least the ghost of a smile to Kija’s face - _and oh, if only they could have something normal now, something like the gentle teasing that had become a familiar, comforting routine_ \- but Kija only frowned, his brow crinkling a little under the dried blood and dirt caking his skin. Suddenly, Jae-ha felt like smoothing away the little crease in his skin with a thumb.

He stopped himself, though.

There were tear tracks there too amid the dirt on Kija’s face; they had all cried today, tears of powerless rage when Mizari came for Zeno and they simply had to sit back and watch. Jae-ha knew with a weary certainty that it would be the same tomorrow, too, and the day after, and all the days until Yona came back.

Or until the war came. That was also a possibility, Jae-ha knew.

But for all those shed tears, Kija was not crying now; his eyes were quite dry, and he regarded Jae-ha with a look that seemed to go right through him, seeing the pain and the weariness and the longing in him more clearly even than Shin-ah’s golden dragon eyes had ever seen his heart.

“Are you going to be all right tonight, Jae-ha?”

 _Are any of us?_ He wanted to say. But instead, he merely sighed, breaking his gaze away from Kija’s after a long, long moment. He curled his legs up underneath him, shifting his weight to one side so that he and Kija were each leaning against each other with the stone wall at their backs. He tucked the cloak-blanket close around them both as best he could. “Go back to sleep, Kija” he whispered.

“Only if you do too” said Kija as he leaned his head against Jae-ha’s good shoulder.

Jae-ha could not help but smile a little at that, feeling his dry lips cracking with it, sharp spikes of pain. “It’s a deal.”

Nevertheless, it was some time before Jae-ha felt Kija’s body go slack and heavy with sleep, slumping down his side a little once more as his breathing evened out, feathery gusts of warm breath against Jae-ha’s throat.

And even then he waited for some time in the silence of the night, before leaning down and very gently kissing the crown of Kija’s head, right in the middle where his hair parted.

He was not sure how long it was after that. But at some point just before the dawn came, Jae-ha fell into an uneasy, restless sleep, filled with strange ghostlike dreams that fled from his memory when the dawn light filtered through the barred window.


End file.
